


always time enough

by foundCarcosa



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Multi, Nonbinary Character, Polyamorous Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29852376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foundCarcosa/pseuds/foundCarcosa
Summary: Xoti's holding a torch -- or maybe I should say "lantern". Put that thing down, girl, the Watcher's arms have always been open for you.
Relationships: Tekēhu/The Watcher, The Watcher/Xoti (Pillars of Eternity)





	always time enough

What Xoti wanted to know was, where did Keahi get the _energy?_

The demands upon eir attention were myriad. From Port Maje to Neketaka and at every little island in between, everyone wanted a piece of the Watcher of Caed Nua. Beggars tugged on eir robes; nobles feigned disinterest but looked at em with gleaming, avaricious eyes; pirates and crime bosses crafted cunning ways to milk Keahi’s good nature for their gain. And tirelessly Keahi listened to their pleas or demands, patiently unravelled threads of deception or the bad stitching over old wounds, wove eir words like pretty tapestries or like calming spells, and sometimes, sometimes brought out eir quarterstaff with a sigh and made short work of a particularly stubborn problem.

Point being, Keahi should have had little energy or time for Xoti. She didn’t think ey noticed when she cradled her chin in her hands and watched em work with softness in her eyes. She didn’t think ey paid much attention when she complimented em so earnestly, or brought em little treasures she pilfered from hidey-holes, or encouraged em when eir confidence flagged. She simply did it because hope made her stubborn and more than a little foolish.

It took her a while to realise that Keahi always called her eir “little lantern”, with a sweet smile playing at eir lips. That ey kept all her little treasures and sometimes brought them out to play with like worry stones when ey were weary. That ey never gave her that wary askance look that Edér always gave her when she started going on in that fervent way of hers about soul-reaping, or when the waking nightmares got bad again and she swayed and sweated and intoned terrible things. That ey cupped her shoulder and grounded her, so she wouldn’t fall into the darkness, and used eir own waterskin and the hem of eir own garment to cool her forehead.

– That when she’d coloured crimson and dropped her jaw at the sight of em unclad and gleaming darkly in the midday sun during that one swimming race, ey looked over eir shoulder at her and winked, laughing slyly. Ey’d _known._

Ey did have time and energy, it seemed, more than she could fathom. But it’d been a while since Saewyn, and she’d been so focused on her Gaun-given duty besides… she didn’t know how to act anymore. She stammered and hedged when she tried to be frank with Keahi, then she sighed and leaned into eir hand whenever ey touched her, and she figured that was as good as it was going to get.

And then came Tekēhu.

Tekēhu, tall as Keahi and as blue as Keahi was brown, eir hair like sea-serpents and eir movements as entrancing as the depths. Tekēhu didn’t shape water as much as ey coaxed water into dancing with em, eir motions so sinuous and undulating it could make one seasick. Keahi may have had a silver tongue, but even ey were helpless around Ngoti’s chosen.

There came a time when Xoti rounded a corner in an alley in the Berth and found the two in a situation that she couldn’t quite explain the indecency of, but could _feel,_ like a full-body flush. Tekēhu had Keahi trapped between em and the sun-warmed wall, and the watershaper flowed against the Watcher like a tide, an undulation so slow and subtle that one would have to stare to notice it – and it was true, Xoti _was_ staring, watching Keahi’s heavy-lidded and wanton expression, watching em flare and surge against Tekēhu like a coaxed flame. Watching and feeling her heart sink like a stone, because this godlike could do what she didn’t have the stones to do, and could do it _well._

“I felt you earlier, little lantern,” Keahi murmured with an askance look in her direction, much later, over their meze and wine. “What did you see?”

Ey didn’t seem upset, but her heart pounded anyway. “I– I didn’t see much. I swear it. You two just… caught me by surprise, is all. Didn’t expect to see… well, _that,_ I guess. Right there in the middle of the city, and all.”

Keahi laughed around a mouthful of taar. “Hardly in the middle of the city, but your point is taken. It was improper of me, but I… well, I was taken by surprise, too. And a little hypnotised, if I’m honest.” Ey cleared eir throat and regarded her over the rim of eir cup. “Do you think I will forget you, Xoti?”

“For– forget me? Well, what do you mean by that?” Xoti busied herself with scooping pickled silverfin onto a piece of taar.

“If you were my little lantern, and Tekēhu were my…” Keahi waved a hand through the air, thinking, and Xoti felt a little juvenile pleasure at the fact that the watershaper didn’t yet have a special nickname, and then she kicked herself. “…My black pearl, say. Would that be all right?”

“Are you… hold on a moment,” Xoti stammered, looking em full in the eyes for the first time since the conversation began. “You… you mean… you and I…?”

“Well, we’re certainly moving slower than I’m used to, but I think we’re making progress, don’t you?” Keahi’s dark eyes sparkled, although eir smile was still coyly hidden behind eir cup. “I try not to be pushy, I'm sure feeling pressured by me would be counterproductive... but I’m yours if you want me. I always have been.”

“Well, Hel, I didn’t know I was _sharin’,_ I just thought I was _losin’!”_ Xoti laughed in a short, amazed burst, feeling like firecrackers were going off in her chest. _Always have been! Always--!_ “But how… how you gonna do it? Keep so busy, and still have time for… both of us?”

“Always time enough for love, my little lantern,” Keahi winked, holding eir hand out to bring her closer, “if you do it honestly and you do it well.”


End file.
